Nine in Water, Many Beyond

In the tongue of the Karicarya, their world means 'Adoring Sunrise'. In the Saenoch's speech, it is 'Open Palm'. The name of this world is unknown as of this writing, but most other subjects...well, that's a different story.

24. Repulsive Idols - Saenoch Geobach

Skin starts to crawl, pustules swelling deep within the flesh before pushing to the surface and bursting. Hot, yellow pus pours down shaking arms and weak knees as the boils burrowed deep dry out to become nothing but a honeycomb network of holes. You look at yourself, slimy chunks of vomit filling your mouth and spreading over your tongue before you drop to your knees and spit out the black, slippery mass onto your pitted hands. Every sound tightens the vice around your head, every breath of foul air scalds you, and every bead of sweat dripping down your back freezes you. Gasping for breath, your stomach twisting, you look up and see that you are hers now.

Saenoch Geobach, she who scuttles within the spheres of repulsion and rejection. She who takes a different form for each mortal that sees her, plunging into the minds of those who view her and assuming the form of that which disgusts them most. Skittering cockroaches, rotting corpses, a gathering of mangy, fetid rats, a wheezing, coughing victim of foul disease, or a pile of writhing maggots sinking their stubby, black fangs into each other's white flesh are her most common forms, but whatever makes someone's skin crawl and stomach twist most will be that which she appears as.

You would think people would notice the main source of their disgust, but rarely is this the case. Deep within the tropical forests of Pellen, few pay attention to the fanged, furry tarantula skittering through the leaves. Within the cellars of Herlenne's grand mansions, a cockroach feasting on the scraps of fat meant for the pigs can go undetected with relative ease. The disregard reserved for the disgusting is what makes Geobach one of the most popular Saenochs amongst mortals. Well, certain groups of them, at least.

It is reported that several branches of the notorious Rogues' Guild owe their obscurity to Saenoch Geobach. Most well-respected citizens of the Nine actively reject such ruffians and braggarts, and it is this rejection that causes the Saenoch to spread her leathery wings and take the Rogues' Guild into her embrace. Few would willingly keep a mother figure such as Geobach, but for those who work in stealth and shadow, Geobach's gift of disregard can allow some more...shady activities to take place right under the noses of the Nine's authorities. Some even claim the Rogues' Guild has been around for so long purely because of Saenoch Geobach's influence. Leaving some rotten meat or compost upon a shrine in the corner of the Guild's main hideout is the least they could do in return.

Geobach's revolting love does not just extend to those who willingly seek life in the shadows. Across the Lands, there are those who the cultures of the Nine neither have nor want to make room for. Those forced into the darkness, pushed out of sight and kept out of mind, can seek comfort and support from she of repulsion and rejection. For when mortals consider them disgusting and abominations, Geobach and her Sagittarius servants provide the outcasts with comforting welcome. A longed-for welcome appreciated by those rejected, even if it comes with a cost.

Such is the case of one Karicarya girl, who fled from Pellen at just nineteen, becoming a student in the art of secret murder for Saenoch Geobach. Like most homosexual Karicarya living upon Pellen, young Sizouze was considered a pollutant to her race, and had to either convert or be killed before her 'disease' could spread. Unwilling to face either of those options, the adolescent Karicarya chose to flee, abandoning her family and hiding in a barrel aboard a cargo ship bound for Remand. Upon landing on Remand, Sizouze realised she had no plan and no place to stay, forcing her to sleep in one of the covered alleyways and live off scraps gifted to her by the generous. What once was an upper-middle class young lady, who took ballet lessons and played the flute, was reduced to just a humble beggar at the mercy of others, until one night when a dark, shady figure approached her in the alleyway, drawing a blade.

Sizouze was frozen with fright, but just for a moment. As a former ballet dancer, she had strong thighs capeable of propelling a kick straight into her attacker's crotch, knocking them off kilter long enough for her to strike them several times in the throat. Staggered, Sizouze managed to force them to the floor, but they fell upon their own blade and choked on their own blood from their pierced lungs, splattering the young Karicarya in blood. Blood and death had always repulsed her, and bile rose in her throat as she backed away from her first kill. As her stomach twisted and goosebumps rose on her limbs, she was approached once more, but this time with no malice. A lone member of Remand's branch of Dust, an Evemeni woman by the name of Isiress, had witnessed her kill someone with their own weapon and wanted Sizouze for the Guild. Repulsed by murder and corpses, Sizouze initially refused, until Isiress mentioned how the body had vanished. In its place stood nothing, until a cloud of moths billowed out from nowhere, flying at Isiress as she squealed and bolted, shuddering as they landed upon her in a layer of furry wings. Sizouze told the young Evemeni not to fear, for the creatures were really Saenoch Geobach of repulsion and rejection, and she had delivered her a message. She was to take up the assassin's blade, purely because blood, gore, and the corpses of the deceased sickened her to her very core.

Geobach's sense of maternal care for those rejected contrasts sharply with her enjoyment of filling mortals with a stomach-churning feeling of revulsion. On one side, she is seen to hate, yet on the other she is seen to love. Such is the case of another Saenoch, who both hoards and shares, enlightens and deludes.